Third gender on all bank forms

Reserve Bank of India has directed banks to henceforth include `third gender` in all their forms and applications, whether prescribed by the central bank or designed by the banks themselves. The move follows a Supreme Court directive. Besides changes in stationery, banks will have to make changes to their core banking software to include the additional variable in the gender column. The SC had said that absence of a law recognizing hijras as third gender cannot continue as a ground to discriminate against them.